Evolutionary ecology of plant-microbe interactions: soil microbial structure alters selection on plant traits

Drosophila melanogaster lives, breeds and feeds on fermenting fruit, an environment that supports a high density, and often a diversity, of microorganisms. This association with such dense microbe-rich environments has been proposed as a reason that D. melanogaster evolved a diverse and potent antimicrobial peptide (AMP) response to microorganisms, especially to combat potential pathogens that might occupy this niche. Yet, like most animals, D. melanogaster also lives in close association with the beneficial microbes that comprise its microbiota, or microbiome, and recent studies have shown that antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) of the epithelial immune response play an important role in dictating these interactions and controlling the host response to gut microbiota. Moreover, D. melanogaster also eats microbes for food, consuming fermentative microbes of decaying plant material and their by-products as both larvae and adults. The processes of nutrient acquisition and host defence are remarkably similar and use shared functions for microbe detection and response, an observation that has led to the proposal that the digestive and immune systems have a common evolutionary origin. In this manner, D. melanogaster provides a powerful model to understand how, and whether, hosts differentiate between the microbes they encounter across this spectrum of associations. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Evolutionary ecology of arthropod antimicrobial peptides’.

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Replacement of native vegetation alters the soil microbial structure in the Pampa biome

Scientia Agricola ◽

10.1590/1678-992x-2015-0494 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 74 (1) ◽

pp. 77-84 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Afnan Khalil Ahmad Suleiman ◽

Victor Satler Pylro ◽

Luiz Fernando Wurdig Roesch

Keyword(s):

Native Vegetation ◽

Microbial Structure ◽

Soil Microbial ◽

Pampa Biome

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The relative importance of rapid evolution for plant-microbe interactions depends on ecological context

Proceedings of The Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rspb.2014.0028 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 281 (1785) ◽

pp. 20140028 ◽

Cited By ~ 39

Author(s):

Casey P. terHorst ◽

Jay T. Lennon ◽

Jennifer A. Lau

Keyword(s):

Microbial Communities ◽

Bacterial Abundance ◽

Rapid Evolution ◽

Soil Microbial Communities ◽

Ecological Effect ◽

Ecological Context ◽

Ecological Processes ◽

Soil Microbial ◽

Long Term Experiment ◽

Microbe Interactions

Evolution can occur on ecological time-scales, affecting community and ecosystem processes. However, the importance of evolutionary change relative to ecological processes remains largely unknown. Here, we analyse data from a long-term experiment in which we allowed plant populations to evolve for three generations in dry or wet soils and used a reciprocal transplant to compare the ecological effect of drought and the effect of plant evolutionary responses to drought on soil microbial communities and nutrient availability. Plants that evolved under drought tended to support higher bacterial and fungal richness, and increased fungal : bacterial ratios in the soil. Overall, the magnitudes of ecological and evolutionary effects on microbial communities were similar; however, the strength and direction of these effects depended on the context in which they were measured. For example, plants that evolved in dry environments increased bacterial abundance in dry contemporary environments, but decreased bacterial abundance in wet contemporary environments. Our results suggest that interactions between recent evolutionary history and ecological context affect both the direction and magnitude of plant effects on soil microbes. Consequently, an eco-evolutionary perspective is required to fully understand plant–microbe interactions.

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Assessing the impact of zero-valent iron (ZVI) nanotechnology on soil microbial structure and functionality: A molecular approach

Chemosphere ◽

10.1016/j.chemosphere.2011.11.041 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 86 (8) ◽

pp. 802-808 ◽

Cited By ~ 97

Author(s):

C. Fajardo ◽

L.T. Ortíz ◽

M.L. Rodríguez-Membibre ◽

M. Nande ◽

M.C. Lobo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Zero Valent Iron ◽

Molecular Approach ◽

Microbial Structure ◽

Soil Microbial ◽

The Impact

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The soil microbial community predicts the importance of plant traits in plant–soil feedback

New Phytologist ◽

10.1111/nph.13215 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 206 (1) ◽

pp. 329-341 ◽

Cited By ~ 57

Author(s):

Po‐Ju Ke ◽

Takeshi Miki ◽

Tzung‐Su Ding

Keyword(s):

Microbial Community ◽

Soil Microbial Community ◽

Plant Traits ◽

Soil Microbial ◽

Plant Soil ◽

Soil Feedback

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Has agricultural intensification impacted maize root traits and rhizosphere interactions related to organic N acquisition?

AoB Plants ◽

10.1093/aobpla/plaa026 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (4) ◽

Author(s):

Jennifer E Schmidt ◽

Amisha Poret-Peterson ◽

Carolyn J Lowry ◽

Amélie C M Gaudin

Keyword(s):

Nutrient Cycling ◽

Agricultural Intensification ◽

Extracellular Enzymes ◽

Plant Traits ◽

Root Traits ◽

N Fertilization ◽

N Cycling ◽

Organic N ◽

Microbe Interactions ◽

Rhizosphere Processes

Abstract Plant–microbe interactions in the rhizosphere influence rates of organic matter mineralization and nutrient cycling that are critical to sustainable agricultural productivity. Agricultural intensification, particularly the introduction of synthetic fertilizer in the USA, altered the abundance and dominant forms of nitrogen (N), a critical plant nutrient, potentially imposing selection pressure on plant traits and plant–microbe interactions regulating N cycling and acquisition. We hypothesized that maize adaptation to synthetic N fertilization altered root functional traits and rhizosphere microbial nutrient cycling, reducing maize ability to acquire N from organic sources. Six maize genotypes released pre-fertilizer (1936, 1939, 1942) or post-fertilizer (1984, 1994, 2015) were grown in rhizoboxes containing patches of 15N-labelled clover/vetch residue. Multivariate approaches did not identify architectural traits that strongly and consistently predicted rhizosphere processes, though metrics of root morphological plasticity were linked to carbon- and N-cycling enzyme activities. Root traits, potential activities of extracellular enzymes (BG, LAP, NAG, urease), abundances of N-cycling genes (amoA, narG, nirK, nirS, nosZ) and uptake of organic N did not differ between eras of release despite substantial variation among genotypes and replicates. Thus, agricultural intensification does not appear to have impaired N cycling and acquisition from organic sources by modern maize and its rhizobiome. Improved mechanistic understanding of rhizosphere processes and their response to selective pressures will contribute greatly to rhizosphere engineering for sustainable agriculture.

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Silicate Fertilization Improves Microbial Functional Potential For Stress Tolerance in Arsenic-Enriched Rice Cropping Systems

10.21203/rs.3.rs-147549/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Suvendu Das ◽

Gil Won Kim ◽

Jeong Gu Lee ◽

Mohammad Saiful Islam Bhuiyan ◽

Pil Joo Kim

Keyword(s):

Stress Tolerance ◽

Cropping Systems ◽

Phosphate Limitation ◽

Soil Microbiome ◽

Soil Microbial ◽

Functional Potential ◽

Tightly Coupled ◽

Microbe Interactions ◽

Induced Stresses ◽

Microbial Stress

Abstract Background: The host plant and its rhizosphere microbiome are similarly exposed to abiotic stresses under arsenic (As)-enriched cropping systems. Since silicon (Si) fertilization is effective in alleviating As-induced stresses in plants, and plant-microbe interactions are tightly coupled, we hypothesized that Si-fertilization would improve soil microbial functional potential to environmental stress tolerance, which was surprisingly not yet studied. With the help of high throughput metagenome, microarray and analyzing plant impacts on soil microbiome and the environment, we tested the hypothesis in two geographically different rice (i.e., Japonica and Indica) grown on As- enriched soils.Results: Silicate fertilization in rice grown on As-enriched soils altered rhizosphere bacterial communities and increased several commensal microorganisms and their genetic potential to tolerate oxidative stress, osmotic stress, oxygen limitation, nitrogen and phosphate limitation, heat and cold shock, and radiation stress. The stress resistant microbial communities shifted with the changes in rhizosphere nutrient flows and cumulative plant impacts on the soil environment.Conclusions: The study highlights a thus-far unexplored behavior of Si-fertilization to improve microbial stress resilience under As-laden cropping systems and open up promising avenue to further study how commonalities in plant-microbe signaling in response to Si-fertilization alleviates As-induced stresses in agro-systems.

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